Page 6 - MidWeek Central - May 18, 2022

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MAY 18, 2022
Hale‘iwa Resident Reaches Remote Frontier Through Travels
BY CENTRAL O‘AHU VOICE STAFF
(From left) Michael Lorne and his wife Linda take a photo with penguins at South Georgia Island, King Haakon Bay, Peggotty Bluff; two penguins are photographed at South Georgia Island, Salisbury Plain; Michael Lorne at Lago de los Tres, at the base of Monte Fitz Roy. PHOTOS COURTESY MICHAEL LORNE
For Hale‘iwa resident Michael Lorne, traveling is more than just a vacation or departure from the norm. Each trip he takes represents another leg on a lifelong jour- ney that has taken him across the United States and around the world.
tons of large sea spiders and crabs.”
Before retiring at the end of 2021, Lorne’s lifelong goal was to travel to all 50 states and visit the world’s seven continents. The final piece to the extraordinary travel puzzle was Antarctica, which presents a host of challenges and logistical headaches due to the remote geographic lo- cation and extremely cold temperatures. And, add to the already difficult journey addi- tional hurdles and procedures caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, and the process became even more arduous.
While he did end up test- ing positive for COVID-19 at the tail end of the trip, he successfully quarantined and returned home with a price- less collection of memories.
Lorne’s trek to Antarctica and Patagonia (encompass- ing the rugged southern end of South America) got un- derway on Dec. 20, 2021, as part of the “Quark Expedition – Celebrating Shackleton: Journey from Antarctica to South Georgia.” The trip was planned to run through Jan. 10, and participants would be on the inaugural voyage of the Ultramarine, a 200-pas- senger ship designed for safe and comfortable polar explo-
“The challenge was get- ting to Ushuaia and boarding the ship without contracting COVID on the way, and hop- ing that the expedition was not canceled again at the last minute,” Lorne says of the route that initially spanned from Honolulu to Phoenix to Dallas-Fort Worth to Buenos Aires, Argentina.
The tour’s staff included a marine biologist, glaciolo- gist, geologist, logistics co- ordinator, ornithologist and historian, as well as two spe- cial guests: Tim Jarvis, who had walked across Antarcti- ca, and Dr. Ross MacPhee, a paleontologist and curator
ration.
Additionally, he planned
journey prior to boarding the Ultramarine (this was key as some on the exhibition weren’t allowed to board af- ter failing their tests), Lorne marveled at the natural land- scapes and animal life ob- served throughout the tour. He was amazed by the mul- titude of penguins saw along the way, including 60,000- plus king penguins on Salis- bury Plain, South Georgia, as well as humpback and fin seals, numerous birds includ- ing albatross and arctic duck, and large algae such as bull kelp and giant kelp.
at the American Museum of Natural History.
is unique in its own respect. Walls of hanging glaciers, re- cessed glaciers and exposed rock, as well as inlets filled with ice slush, growlers and icebergs” were common- place, as were “landings with beaches of rounded sedimen- tary rocks or slabs of shale, rocks coated with brilliant lichens and molted exoskele-
“The takeaway,” Lorne says of the experience, “is, when traveling international- ly, be sure to allot extra time for medical situations that could occur.”
to spend 10 more days ex- ploring Ushuaia, in Tierra del Fuego, and El Calafate and El Chalten, in Patagonia, Argen- tina, as part of an enhanced South American adventure. Lorne notes that the expedi- tion was originally scheduled for December 2020, but was postponed a year because of the unpredictable COVID-19 pandemic.
“Antarctica is essentially a giant ice cap with moun- tains, plains and valleys,” Lorne says. “Some locations along the perimeter of the continent are exposed, rocky cliffs and small areas where Zodiac landings took place. Each area that we landed on
More details about the cit- ies visited on the expedition, including common tourist at- tractions and events, can be found at travelocity.com and roughguide.com.
After taking COVID-19 tests along each leg of the
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